Judicial Process Article Review Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Judicial Process Article Review - Research Paper Example Some states in the US define the juvenile-adult transition at seventeenth birthday, and some few states define the line of transition at sixteen years of age. Generally, states have laid down transfer procedure laws that govern or call for criminal prosecution of young offenders, even if they are considered juveniles under the jurisdictional definition. The laws are intended to reduce or deter further criminal activities. Research has not established any inherent fact that they are effective, questioning their efficiency. Are the laws efficient in deterring crime? Research on effects of the law on deterring crime has produced totally inconsistent results. Prompting the question of their effectiveness. Many studies have not realized a drop in juvenile crime rate that can be associated with the transfer laws. Nonetheless, much evidence demonstrates that transfer laws governing the states have a diminutive or no effect in deterring crime by the juveniles. Possible reasoning attributes it to general ignorance, tendency to ignore risks involved in decision making and low impulse control. A research comparing youths prosecuted criminally and youth processed under the juvenile system demonstrated a counter effect of transfer laws on criminal deterrence. Youths prosecuted criminally were also found to recidivate frequently and sooner into criminal activities. These negative results can be attributed to various causes, which include indirect and direct effects of conviction criminally, absence of rehabilitative means in the criminal correctional facilities, and the risk of association with criminal mentors in the adult correctional system. Studies showing the counter-productive nature of transfer system do not all agree that the effect is true in all types of offences, creating a possible assumption that criminal conviction may be effective on some juvenile offenders and non-effective on some offenders. A research conducted by